Musical reed-pipe instrument.



N. SHILZONY.

MUSICAL REED PIPE INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. \6. I916.

Patented Dec. 17, 1918.

NL'KLAS SHILZONY, or wmrrlnncenrronma.

MUSICAL REED-PIPE INSTRUMENT.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NIKLAS SHILZONY, formerly NIKLAS Sonntzonrr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Whittier, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Musical Reed-Pipe Instrument, of which the following is a specification.

as with keys mounted on t his invention relates to a musical reed pipe instrument having vents and keys, such for instance as the clarinet, fiageolet, saxophone, duonette and duophone.

uring an experience of over twenty years as teacher of the clarinet and instruments of that type, I have observed that the mastery of the instrument is so hard to attain that it is very diificult to geta musician to persist in his practice until he has attained such mastery. It has been my experience that out of the pupils who undertake the clarinet, at least 7 5 per cent. drop out before they can properly blow the scale.

An object of this invention is to obviate this diiiiculty and to provide a clarinet type of musical instrument which may be easily mastered by any musician acquainted with the piano keyboard and which will encourage students or beginners to learn to play the same.

Anotherobject is to make available to the ordinary musician, instruments of the type invented by me and patented to me by U. S. Letters-Patent No. 1,169,358, dated J an. 25, 1916.

An object of the invention is to provide a musical instrument of this type that will be more easily mastered by the student and the average player than musical instruments of this type heretofore known.

The invention relates to a mouth-blown reed pipe instrument having its reed on the outside of the mouthpiece for artistic blowing, and includes the novel instrument and parts, combinations of parts, and arran ements and features of construction hereinafter set forth. lhe invention is broadly new and pioneer in various features, among which may be mentioned the broadly new and distinguishingcharacteristic that this instrument is a mouth-blown musical reed pipe instrument having a mouthpiece with oppositely arranged reeds, lip and one for the lowerlip. A further feature is that this instrument is provided he pipe and having Specification of Letters Patent.

one for the upper I Patented Dec. 17, 31918.

Application filed August 18, 1916. Serial No. 115,325.

finger-pieces and normally closing all the vents of the pipes and being adapted to be separately operated directly by the fingers of the players hand so that the player is enabled to play a single clarinet, saxophone, or other reed pipe instrument of the clarinet family with only one hand; said fingerpleces belng operable to open the vents respectlvely, each independently of the other. By this s mple novelty, I greatly reduce the requirements of skill for the player of such artistic musical instrument. That is to say with the clarinet, heretofore known, it requires the simultaneous use of nine fingers to play either low 6 or second 6 in the scale while with my instrument any note of the chromatic scale is played by the use of only one finger.

By this invention I also am able to minimize the cost'of musical reed pipe instru-.

ments adapted for artistic rendition of music and I have arranged the vents in order and have made them nearly of the same size. I am able to arrange the vents in a straight row and construct and arrange the keys with practical uniformity.

In carrying out the invention in this preferred form I have also produced an instrument that is broadly new and pioneer in that l have provided two pipes, each vented for a complete chromatic scale and each provided with keys'normally closing the vents and adapted to be separately operated to open the vents independently of each other, and I have provided for such instrument a dual mouthpiece having superposed reeds one on top and one below the mouthpiece and connected to the pipes respectively and adapted to be played respectively by the separate lips of the player.

Another feature of the invention consists in providing a vibration stopper for the reeds respectively, whereby either one of the reeds may be closed or stopped from vibration so that the player may with great convenience change from a dual tube instruunent to a single tube instrument, and at features of Figure 1 is a to view of a duonette constructed in accor ance with this invention. A fragment of the bell is shown in place and sectioned in horizontal mid-plane.

. Fig. 2 is a fragmental view of the underside of the instrument shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3. is a broken side elevation of the instrumentshown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 00*, Figs. 1, 2 and 3, looking toward the mouthpiece.

Fig. 5 is an end view of the dual mouthpiece omitting the reeds. v i l a Fig. 6 is a view of the rear end of the mouth iece detached. V

In l, 2 and 3 two notes for each key" areindicated b the musical symbols therefor. The one 0 said symbols nearest a key indicating the note for such key when the o tave key is closed, and the second symbol from the key indicating the note of that ke when the octave key is open.

The musical reed pipe instrument shown in the drawing comprises two tubes 1, 2, which may be of the same or difierent tone qualities, and each having vents 3 for a complete chromatic scale of an octave or more than one octave.-

Said instrument is also shown with a dual mouthpiece 4 for the tubes, said mouthpiece having superposed reeds 5, 6, there bein a reed 5 connected to the tube 1 and ree 6 connected to the tube 2'. Said instrument is also provided with keys normally closing all of the vents and adapted to be separately operated to open the vents independently of each other. Each of said keys consists of the usual vent cover 7 and pivoted shank 8 and the shank is provided with appropriate finger pieces which are shown in the drawings as of two forms 9, 9. Each of sald shanks is spring-controlled to cause the keys to close the vents and the finger-pieces are arranged to operate the shanks against the spring pressure to open the vents.

The springs may be applied in various ways and in the drawings are shown at 10 operating on the finger-piece s1de of the bridge 11 that pivots the Each of the tubes is provided with the usual octave vent at 12 and saidoctave vents are controlled by the elongate thumb-pieces 13 mounted on the elongate bridges 14 that are pivoted on the standards 15 and operate on shank 16 to open the cover 17 of the octave vent.

The dual mouthpiece is provided with the reed beds'18,'19, through which the mouths 20 and 21 open to the tubes 1 and 2 respec tively.

One or both sides of'the mouthpiece may be provided with a vibration stopper, as the flap 22 hinged at 23 and adapted to cover and put out of use a reed when it is desired to play a solo instead of a duet. Usually a single flap will be sufiicient for. the dual these flaps will be used at a time.

shank to the tube.

mouthpiece, but if desired two flaps may be provided as shown-in Fig. 3. a

may be made of a thin strip of silver or other suitable material and is adapted to be held against the reed by the lips player- The'flap 22 is not movable endwise but swings freely on the pivot 23 to rest on and to be removed fromthe reed; being adapted thereto by snugly pivoting or hinging said flap on the stationary axis at 23 upon which the flap may be oscillated instantaneously from any position to which it may be brought.

The player may flip the flap instantly so as to change from single to double reed blowing without any break or intermission in. the music.

The fingerpieces 9 and 9 are shown of circular and oblong forms respectively and are thus distinguished from each other for the purpose of tactile recognition by the finger of the player, the circular finger piece 9 being applied to the diatonic notes and-the oblong fingerpiece being applied to the chromatic notes of the scale. I

The vents of the tubes will be arranged therealong according to the laws of acoustics and each tube when all of the vents are closed and the instrument is blown, it will produce the note low E; and when the cover of the vent near est the end of the tube is open, the note F will be sounded. When the next cover F# is open the note F# is sounded and so on with all of the covers G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D,- D#, E, F, F#, G, G# and A the cor-responding notes" of the chromatic scale will be sounded, and when the cover 17 of the octave vent is raised while any of the covers just enumerated is raised, the sound given will be a twelfth higher in cylindrical bore tubes, and an octave higher in taper Only one of Each flap or teeth of the will be so .constructed that cover A while thewill be sounded.

s a its 9 i a A,

more than one full chromatic scale by simply fingering the finger-piece as he would finger the keys of a piano, ing the octave vent and keeping it openhe can then run a further scale by the same simple method, and this is true of both tubes;

andthat by open-I and the player can play both tubes simultaneously using the fingers of one or both hands for either or both tubes as may be found expedient.

I-claim:

1. The combination with a musical pipe having a reed mouthpiece and having vents; of keys mounted on the pipe and each adapted to operate independently of all the others, there being a key for each of the vents and each key being disconnected from all the others; springs acting upon said keys respectively to cause the same to normally close all the vents;'finger pieces for the keys respectively, each adapted to be separately operated by pressure of the fingers directly on it to operate the key thereof to open the vent therefor independently of any other.

2. The combination with a pipe having a reed mouthpiece and vents for a complete chromatic scale; of keys mounted on the pipe and adapted to normally close all of sai vents and each adapted to operate independently of all the others; spring means for the keys respectively, each normally holding the ke in vent-closing position independently 0 all the others; and fingerpieces for the keys respectively, each fingerpiece being adapted to be separately operated by a finger of the player applied directly on said finger-piece and being arranged to open its vent independently of all the others. I

3. In combination with a musical instrument comprising a reed mouthpiece and a pipe having vents, all of which vents are arranged in a straight line; of keys mounted on the pipes and normally closing all of said vents, each key being operated independently of all the others spring means to hold said keys, each independently of all the others, normally in vent-closing position; and finger-pieces mountedon said keys and each operable bya finger of the player directly to open its vent independently of all the others.

4. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes each having vents; a dual mouthpiece for the tubes; and keys-having finger pieces and normally closing all the vents and adapted to be separately operated to open the vents independently of each other.

5. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes, each having vents for a complete chromatic scale; a dual mouthpiece for said tubes; and keys having finger pieces and normally closing all of said vents and adapted to be separately operated directly b the fin ers of the player to open said ve1i ts indep endently of each other.

6. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes each having vents; a dual mouth piece for the tubes; reeds for the mouth pieces; keys normally closing all the vents and adapted to be separately operated to open the vents independently of each other, and a thin plate connected to the mouth piece and adjustable to position to engage a reed of said mouth piece for the puizipose of stopping the vibration of such ree 7. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes, each having vents for a complete chromatic scale; a dual mouth piece for said tubes; keys normally closing all of said vents and adapted to be separately operated to open said vents independently of each other; and independent covers for the reeds of said mouth piece to stop the vibrations of the reeds respectively.

8. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes and a dual mouth piece for said tubes; said mouthpiece having oppositely arranged reeds so that each reed may be operated independently of the other by a separate lip of the player.

musical reed pipe instrument comprising a mouth piece having a reed on its upper side for operation by the upper lip and another reed on its under side for operation by the lower lip.

10. A musical reed pipe instrument comprising two tubes arranged side by side, and a mouth piece having oppositely arranged reeds for said tubes respectively.

11. A musical instrument comprising a pipe having vents and a reed mouthpiece for said pipe; keys for the vents respectively, each being independent of all the others; spring means normally holding the keys in vent-closing position; and fingerpieces for the keys respectivel each of being adapted to be separately operated by a finger of the player applied directly on said finger-piece and being arranged to open its vent independently of all the others.

. NIKLAS SHILZON Y. Witness J AMES R. TOWNSEND. 

